MOUNTAIN VIEW — The town of Atherton has always been a hotbed for boys water polo. Proof is in Saturday’s inaugural Coast Section Open Division championship where Atherton neighbors and rival Sacred Heart Prep and Menlo School meet for supremacy in the pool at Independence High in San Jose at 1 p.m.

“It’s kind of crazy,” said SHP coach Brian Kreutzkamp of the title matchup. “They’re a few hundred feet away from us and we’re playing in the Open Division finals down in south San Jose.”

SHP fired on all cylinders in the win over the Lancers, a West Catholic Athletic League rival playing in its own pool. Led by stalwart goalie Alexander Nemeth, the Gators jumped to a 5-1 lead late in the second quarter and never looked back.

“Nemeth played behind JC Marco (last year), but he got a lot of playing time,” Kreutzkamp said. “He started in the CCS finals two years ago when JC got hurt.”

The Gators’ speed advantage and ball-handling skills were ever-present, but Kreutzkamp said it was more than that.

“We have a nice balance,” Kreutzkamp said. “We’re very deep. We’re very fast. This is the deepest and fastest team I’ve coached. Our game plan, all the time, is to push the pace. Our goal all the long has been to be the first Open Division champion.”

Larsen Weigle and Michael Sonsini each had a hat trick for the Gators. Walker Seymour had successive goals to begin the third period. Also finding the net for SHP were Andrew Chukurian and Alex Tsotadze, who scored on a 5-meter penalty shot with 6:30 remaining.

The Lancers had one of the best goals of the night when Frank Lozinski stole the ball late in the third period, then swam ahead with a defender on him. Lozinski controlled the ball before skipping a shot past Nemeth, the Lancers trailing 8-3. Lozinski led the Lancers with a pair of goals. Nathan Puentes scored on a 5-meter penalty, joining Ziad Tannous and Thomas Phillips as St. Francis players in the scoring column. Joe Gallagher played well in the cage for the Lancers.

Earlier, the Knights held on to best the Bells in a tense game. The teams had split meetings early in the year, the Knights winning 8-7, the Bells coming away with an 11-9 triumph.

Menlo coach Jack Bowen wasn’t comfortable when the Knights were up 5-2 at halftime in the semifinals.

“We were playing exceptionally well in the first half,” Bowen said. “By no means did I think we were going to run away with the game. Bellarmine is a phenomenal, well-coached team. They’re strong across the board. I knew the game would be close in some way, shape or form.”

Poulos was superb in delivering the long, lead pass, which produced a few key goals for the Knights.

“Both goalies were tremendous,” Bowen said. “Josh worked a lot on his passing. He was not a good passer at the beginning of the summer. We worked on his release point where his elbow was and his follow-through. He started trusting his teammates that they would get in the spot and get the ball. His teammates would then trust in him.”

“I was looking for the long pass down the right side so you can get the cross-pass weak,” said the 6-foot-3 Poulos, a sophomore. “I had a good warm-up and felt I was going to play well. I was a little bit nervous before the game because our team is mostly seniors. It gets stressful, sometimes.”

The Bells struck first on the first of two goals by Dominick Kirk. Sam Untrecht answered at the 3:03 mark of the first period.

Back and forth it went with Miller Geschke tallying for the Knights, the score tied 2-all after one period. Untrecht scored a minute into the second period, triggering a three-goal run by the Knights. Good ball movement by the Knights, with Connor Enright feeding a wide-open Maxwell Patterson at 2 meters, produced another goal.

Jayden Kunwar’s sweet lob shot put the Knights up 6-3 early in the third period. The Bells got within 6-5, but Kunwar’s lob as the shot clock wound down flicked off Rethans’ hand with 2:07 left, standing as the game-winner.

“I thought our shooting was off,” Bowen said. “But, that’s a tribute to Anthony. As a shooter, you know you have to make the perfect shot.”

Bowen and Kreutzkamp, two coaches who have dominated Division II play in CCS in years past, agree that the Open Division is the way to go.

“The Open Division makes the most sense, by far,” Bowen said. “We have the top eight teams battling it out. We had to go through Menlo-Atherton in the quarterfinals. That’s harder than the most semifinals we’ve ever had. Bellarmine won Division I last year and that’s our semifinal?”

“I’ve been pushing for an Open Division for years,” Kreutzkamp said. “Everyone is going to have a really good feeling about it Saturday when the two best teams are playing each other. There have been some years where people have been left scratching their head wondering if these are the best two. I’m really happy about it.”